DVD Review: The Beyond
The Beyond (E tu vivrai nel terrore - L’aldilà) (1981)
Studio: Grindhouse Releasing
DVD Release Date: October 28, 2008
Directed By: Lucio Fulci
Cast: Katherine MacColl, David Warbeck, Sarah Keller, Antione Saint-John, Maria Pia Marsala
Brutal As Hell Rating: 3 ½ out of 5 stars
Review By: Annie Riordan
Louisiana, 1927. A young artist named Schweick is confronted by an angry mob (who, for some reason, believe him to be a warlock) in his rooms at the Seven Doors Hotel. After beating the shit out of him with chains and crucifying him to a basement wall, they throw some quicklime on him for good measure and leave the unfortunate guy to sizzle and melt to death. 50+ years later, Liza Merril inherits the rotting ruins of The Seven Doors and sets about restoring it. But when Joe the Plumber (I shit you not – Joe the fucking Plumber) heads into the flooded basement to clean up the mess, he accidentally opens one of seven passageways to Hell, releasing a shitload of zombie demons and firmly establishing the link between the GOP and the Forces of Evil.
Ignoring the dire warnings of a mysterious blind girl, Liza pushes on with her plans despite the tragedies and deaths which envelop her new home. But the rotting, squishy ghost of Schweick won’t be ignored so easily! Soon, Liza and her new doctor friend John are gunning their way through a hospital filled with zombies conjured right up out of the Book of Eibon!
And that’s about it, as far as a coherent storyline goes. But come on: this is Fulci, and the only reason you watch a Fulci film is to be utterly grossed out to the point of pyrotechnic nausea by the excess of guts, gore and skewered eyeballs on display. The Beyond does not disappoint in that respect.
Two acid baths, two poked out eyeballs, a dog mauling, a small army of zombies in various stages of decomposition and a horde of face eating tarantulas who, for some reason, make noises like Styrofoam being rubbed up against a bag of chips, are just a handful of the myriad horrors that await you in this flick. Oh, and let’s not forget the taboo breaking scene in which a pigtailed schoolgirls face is blown off and her brains splattered from Hell to breakfast. Oh hells yeah, The Beyond is a big drippy goreburger topped with rotten guts and big gobs of foamy, blood-diluted whipped cream. It may not be as rancidly puke-worthy as Zombi 2, but it’s ultimately more satisfying than The House by the Cemetery.
